Instructor’s Direct and Indirect Feedback: How do they Impact Learners’ Written Performance?

Lee Luan Ng,Siti Nor Aisyah Ishak

doi:10.17576/3l-2018-2403-08

Abstract

Written corrective feedback (WCF) is widely used among writing teachers in attempt to improve students’ language accuracy in their written tasks. Experts of second language (L2) writing stated that WCF plays a significant role in language accuracy development because it is related to the development and improvement of students’ accuracy in second language writing. Corrective feedback can be grouped into direct WCF and indirect WCF. However, results in many past empirical studies were inconclusive because of variation in how the effectiveness of WCF was measured. Additionally, there is a lack of investigation pertaining to the students’ perceptions toward the feedback they received, which may reveal important factors that influence the students’ reception of the feedback that resulted in performance changes. Hence, the purpose of this study is to explore factors that contributed to the accurate use of the past tenses resulting from direct WCF and indirect WCF. Interviews were conducted with 12 students and the qualitative findings revealed the following factors: 1) learner attitudes towards feedback provided, 2) learner beliefs towards what corrections entailed, and 3) types of scaffolding. Additionally, the findings revealed the importance of teacher-student conference, the need for students to be trained over a longer period of time in relation to the use of error codes and the need for instructor to understand and implement direct and indirect feedback accordingly in their teaching. Keywords: written corrective feedback; second language acquisition; direct-indirect feedback; past tenses; mixed methods

Highlights

The role of English language is significant in many Asian countries because it serves as a second language for international communication and telecommunications
The qualitative inquiry is to explore the factors that influenced the performance of the students in the use of past tenses when direct and indirect written corrective feedback (WCF) were provided
In terms of learner attitudes towards the two WCF, for students who received direct feedback, the sub-codlings could be divided into 2 areas, one that relate to the fact that the students viewed Direct WCF as clear and straightforward, and another that relate to the fact that Direct WCF did not pose any challenges

Summary

Introduction

The role of English language is significant in many Asian countries because it serves as a second language for international communication and telecommunications. Mastering the language is still an issue for many students, especially from rural areas, despite learning it since the beginning of schooling. Experts like Han (2002), Havranek (2002), and Swain (1991) strongly believe that it is important for writing teacher to emphasize on language related focused feedback so as to improve students’ written performance (as cited in van Beuningen 2010). These researchers believe that written corrective feedback (WCF) helps students in distinguishing their written errors and aids them

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Results